Sapper Bangs
Gradually, perserverance and hard work got the job done and on 2nd February Sir William Codrington was able to report to Lord Panmure that the destruction of the docks had been completed. Some non-sapper cynics were indelicate enough to enquire why it had taken the Brits so long, when the French had finished their share of the demolitions well before Christmas. But as Colonel Lloyd was at pains to point out:'...their operations were not subject to so many difficulties as fell to our lot. Their charges in the bottoms were not more than six feet deep, whereas ours averaged ten feet six inches in depth.' So there you are.
Out of a working party of 350 infantrymen and 85 sappers labouring under uncomfortable tiring and downright dangerous conditions, the fact that there were only six casualties, including two fatal, speaks volumes for the efficient command, organisation and control of the operations. One of the dead was asphyxiated in a shaft, despite valiant personal efforts by Major Nicholson and others to get him out in time.
They were not allowed to blow up the great dock gates, which had to be dismantled and sent back to Britain as trophies. They turned out to be very heavy, and mounted on strong hinges fixed with massive nuts and bolts which were seized up with the stubborn rust of ages. Can't you just imagine the language!!!
The next big bang was a grand boum when the French went one up on 4th February with the demolition of Fort Nicholas. This was well advertised in advance and developed into a major social occasion, attended by the Commanders in Chief. One can imagine young British officers like Fred Dallas remarking that it would be a novelty to see the French blowing up something other than themselves at last! Fort Nicholas had mounted 200 cannon in two tiers with the roof serving as a third. It had double significance to the Russians - it was the place of safety where they had kept their children at the beginning of the Siege, and subsequently became the headquarters of Town Commander General Osten-Sacken and defences architect General Todleben. The shape of the fort was a horseshoe, and the French had placed seven mines totalling 106,000 pounds of powder, which they exploded in succession from the outsides inwards. The result was total devastation, the proud and mighty fort reduced to a shapeless pile of bricks and
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